Late yesterday afternoon it barely missed us, though it was still 195,000 miles away, flying between our planet and the moon.
But in the vast expanse of the universe, that’s rather close.
Asteroid 2005YU55 has been on the radar of astronomers for quite a while.
Asteroids this big have passed by Earth at similar distances many times before, but this is the first time astronomers have known about the flyby in advance.
There have been many movies that deal with the subject of an asteroid-Earth collision, the most well known being Armageddon.
Many scientists believe the dinosaurs were wiped from the planet by an asteroid or comet collision.
In June 1908 a near collision between the earth and a comet or asteroid took place around the area of the Stony Tunguska River.
Residents in the hills northwest of Lake Baikal observed a column of bluish light, nearly as bright as the Sun, moving across the sky. Suddenly there was a flash and a loud “knocking” sound similar to artillery fire that went in short bursts spaced increasingly wider apart. Eyewitnesses closer to the explosion reported the sound source moving during each barrage, east to north. The sounds were accompanied by a shock wave that knocked people off their feet and broke windows hundreds of miles away. The majority of eyewitnesses reported only the sounds and the tremors, and not the sighting of the explosion.
I believe the Bible speaks of a collision between some heavenly body and our planet.
Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and a great mountain of fire was thrown into the sea. And one-third of the water in the sea became blood. And one-third of all things living in the sea died. And one-third of all the ships on the sea were destroyed.
Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great flaming star fell out of the sky, burning like a torch. It fell upon one-third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star was Bitterness. It made one-third of the water bitter, and many people died because the water was so bitter. Rev 8:8-11 NLT
There will be no Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton to save the day; a nuke is not going to stop it and higher ground will not help.
The only salvation is in Jesus, the Rock of my salvation! 2 Sam 22:47